That issue came up for discussion at the Jan. 12 meeting of the Calhoun County School Board. Lobbyist Patrick Bell was hired six months ago at a rate of $3000 per month to help find funding for the school district. Board member Danny Hassig (district 5) brought up the issue and recommended discontinuing Bell's contract. The County Record was there and captured the discussion on video. After viewing it, be sure to comment on this issue which is our new question of the week. We will follow up with all the School Board members and hope to bring you videos with their comments on the matter. Stay tuned!

I do think that Mr. Bell has the relationships and connections as a lobbist to achieve the goals that are set for him by the school board. My experience with Mr. Bell is from Calhoun Liberty Hospital where he and many others including Ms. Marty Coley, Mr. Al Lawson were all instrumental in getting over 600,000.00 of fees and fines wavied from the Agency for Health Care Administration, so that Calhoun Liberty Hospital could stay open. It is not just 100% of Mr. Bells effort but a collection of 100% of everyones effort involved with the specific project.

All county meetings should be taped and put on the web in their entirety. Doing ten minutes of one meeting constitutes herding an agenda.A citizen cannot make an intellegent decision without knowing all the facts. Where is a source of truth in Calhoun County?

I would suggest that you attend the meetings, Mr. Goff, if you want to hear ALL the facts and make your "intellegent" decisions. The County Record continues to be the source of truth in Calhoun County. It's not the responsibility of The County Record to film entire meetings to be put on the Web. Maybe you should contact your County Commissioner and ask if the BCC could put out a little money to have this done. But, your best bet is to attend the meetings.

Guess the Shut-in Residents and those handicapped have no say in such, or the poor shmuck working 80hrs a week to pay the taxes to put his kids through school should have that added to his workload instead of using the technology at your hands.

Danny Hassig has the "right stuff". He has alot of courage and intelligence to bring this up, and he is exactly spot on. We are getting used by this guy. Hey, he should move up the political ladder. We need reform!

Mr. Hawkins,yes, Danny Hassig has a tremendous amount of courage and intelligence. Why wouldn't we expect that from someone who, an officer in the Army, has proudly served 2 lengthy tours in Iraq, recently promoted to Lt. Col.? He presented an exceptionally compelling argument. If we taxpayers are paying Mr. Bell $3,000 a month, is it reasonable that we should expect him to present us with a detailed plan of action? Yes, it is. He presented nothing. No plan. Therefor, he can just "hoodwink" us with the unmeasurable I-am-closely-connected-to-those-at-the-top-of-the-political-chain notion. Sould we, at the very least, establish performance benchmarks, re-evaluate them every 3 months, for Mr. Bell to achieve in order to continue as a paid lobbyist for us? Yes, we should.
Mr. Hassig (Lt. Col), you have much more than my vote: you have my admiration and respect. Thank you, Sir.

Mr. Hawkins,yes, Danny Hassig has a tremendous amount of courage and intelligence. Why wouldn't we expect that from someone who, an officer in the Army, has proudly served 2 lengthy tours in Iraq, recently promoted to Lt. Col.? He presented an exceptionally compelling argument. If we taxpayers are paying Mr. Bell $3,000 a month, is it reasonable that we should expect him to present us with a detailed plan of action? Yes, it is. He presented nothing. No plan. Therefore, he can just "hoodwink" us with the unmeasurable I-am-closely-connected-to-those-at-the-top-of-the-political-chain notion. Sould we, at the very least, establish performance benchmarks, re-evaluate them every 3 months, for Mr. Bell to achieve in order to continue as a paid lobbyist for us? Yes, we should.
Mr. Hassig (Lt. Col), you have much more than my vote: you have my admiration and respect. Thank you, Sir.

I agree with Danny Hassig. If we need a lobbist to get our county elected people, senators and repersenitives,s attention to get something in calhoun county, we need a change. I am disappointed that Danny had no support..

Somehow, four of our five elected School Board members believe this lobbyist is a good deal for Calhoun County citizens.

I'm curious as to which of those four would hire this guy to work for their personal business, pay him $3000/month, and be okay with him NOT producing not even ONE solution that the school board put into action.

My guess is none of them would. But somehow, in their minds, they believe that each of us, the people they are suppose to represent, believes that this is a good deal for the county, for the school system and for the children of this county.

How would it therefore not apply to themselves, but applies to "us"????

And, now, if suddenly they agree that it's not a good deal with all this uproar, what if no one would have complained then? What other issues are going on with our county money, directly affecting our children, that we don't know about?

If suddenly they can justify this major county expense, why would they have let or continue to allow this lobbyist to earn $3000/month and not produce anything the first month in? Aren't we going on eight or nine months now with this person and not the first tangible result produced other than 'I helped get the second half of your money' (which I strongly disagree that he did. I mean what state agency would fund only half a multi-million dollar school project?)

As the Chairman stated in the video, "I guess no second says everything." She's exactly right, no one else standing up for the citizens of the county (other than Mr. Hassig) to put a stop to this says everything in deed!

p.s. I understand the same question and same problem exists over in the Blountstown City Council as well.

If you really believe your convictions ,and stand by them.. Why not state your name ? Alot of things that are happening in Calhoun County Politics, are because people will not stand up and state their name to things that are to the up most importance .

bSchool Board Member Danny Hassig did not get a second to his motion to terminate the lobbyist but he accomplished two other things. First, he put that lobbyist on notice that there's one capable school board member that's raised the issue of expectations and that this matter could be revisited if he doesn't deliver. Second, he directly asked for comments from the other school board members justifying their positions for voters. Not suprisingly, not a single one offered a comment for their constituents. Mr. Hassig did his job. Now it's up to Calhoun County citizens to consider this situation and the actions of their school board members when they go to the polls in the upcoming elections.

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